RINGER TO THE RESCUE How close should you fish to an island at this time of year?

Allen Cartwright, Stoke-on-Trent

“Fishing tight to an island makes foul hookers far less of a problem”

THE ANSWER to this question is totally depth-dependent, but as tight as you can get if the depth allows is perhaps the best answer I can give!

At this time of year, chub, barbe, skimmers, carp and F1s all love feeding in very shallow water, so if the island you have in front of you is 8ins-10ins deep tight to the bank I’d fish there.

If, however, it’s only a few inches deep you need to work your way back from the island until you find a depth of water that the fish are going to be happy to feed in.

This isn’t ideal if you aren’t fishing tight to the island. In this case the fish can be the wrong side of the float (on the island side) and this can lead to line bites and foul hookers.

However, if you are faced with around 3ft of water tight against the island this, to me, wouldn’t be a problem. If you fish on the bottom, though, it could be tricky because the fish won’t want to stay down on the deck at 3ft.

Faced with this scenario I will fish as tight as possible to the island but set the rig shallow (12ins deep). I’ll then feed with a catapult as opposed to a Kinder pot on the pole.

Pinging bait

When fishing in this manner it can pay to loosefeed pellets into the foliage on the island, so they get caught up. This way the fish will come up to suck and actually slurp the pellets off, making them easier to catch. It’s definitely an advantage to fish tight, because it makes foul hookers a lot less of a problem as the fish can’t get behind your float.

When faced with a deep island swim at this time of year the best attack is shallow, feeding pellets, casters or even meat when allowed.

If, however, I have the perfect depth – around 10ins or thereabouts – then I will normally feed via a small pole-mounted pot.

It’s then a case of feeding baits such as groundbait and maggots, meat or even sloppy micro pellets in the shallow water. Creating a cloud with the feed is also important, which is why groundbait and maggots or sloppy micros work so well.

Even when fishing meat I will always mush some up to feed in among the bigger cubes.

Turning to the best rigs, as far as float choice goes for fishing in 8ins-18ins of water I will use

a 0.3g Guru AR pattern.

A heavier-than-normal float is really important when fishing in shallow water, as it gives the hookbait far more stability. When you get large numbers of fish feeding in very shallow water the swim can become churned up, a bit like a washing machine.

In this situation a light float, say 0.1g, can get pushed all over the place, making it hard to get a proper bite.

It’s for this reason that I feel a heavier-than-normal float is hugely beneficial.

Lines and hooks

As far as line and hooks go, it all depends on the venue that I am fishing. For example, if I was fishing somewhere like Tunnel Barn Farm, where it’s mainly F1s with a few carp to 8lb mixed in, then I will fish 0.17mm N-Gauge mainline to a 4ins hooklength of 0.14mm Pure Fluorocarbon and a size 16 Guru F1 pellet hook.

This would be perfect for baits such as expander pellets, maggots and meat.

The shotting pattern is a bulk of No10s sat 4ins from the hook. Because I’m fishing in such shallow water, I always use a 4ins hooklength because anything longer and I’d have to put shot on the hooklength itself, which is something I don’t want to do for fear of damaging the line.

If I have to fish shallow tight to the island my float choice will be an MW Cookie, and the only other difference will then be the hook, in this case a size 16 Super LWG eyed so I can fish either hard pellet or banded caster if I discover there are more F1s than carp in the swim.

Use a long line

A great tip when fishing tight to islands in shallow water is to try and have a long line between the float and your pole-tip.

This way you can keep the pole high off the water and well away from the fish, as I have no doubt that in shallow water fish are easily spooked by a pole waving about over their heads.

Fishing with a long line can, of course, make hitting bites more difficult, but to get around this I fish with a string of No9 back shots spaced out down the line.

So, if I am fishing with 24ins of line between pole-tip and float I will have shots spaced at 4ins intervals. The back shots give the float stability and also help me keep a tight line.

Otherwise, if I drop the pole and the line isn’t tight, the float will be pulled under by the weight of the shot and I’ll need to readjust.